Expanding Voting Rights Throughout History

1. Chapter 17Section 2 Expanding Voting Rights Mr. Young American Government

3. History of Voting Video • http://www.ownthevote.us/2012/09/a-history-of-voting/ • 3:35 min

4. Early Limitations on Voting • Voting is not a privilege, it is a right • Suffrage- right to vote, foundation of American democracy • Right to vote is not absolute, it is subject to rules and regulations

5. Early limitations Cont. • Only white, property owning males who paid their taxes could vote • This resulted in about 5% to 6% of total adult population • Universal male suffrage would not come until the mid 1800’s

6. Early Limitations Cont. • Educated men of the time did not believe in mass democracy • Voting best left to wealthy, white, property-owning males. • John Jay, “The people who own the country ought to govern it.”

7. Women Suffrage History Video • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiadX_0J8eA&feature=related • 2 min

8. Woman Suffrage • By 1914, women had the right to vote in 11 states • Not until after WW1, in 1920, were women given the right to vote, 19th Amendment

9. “I will never pay a dollar for your unjust fine.” Susan B. Anthony refused to pay a $100 fine for voting in the 1872 Presidential Election.

10. Women’s Suffrage in front of White House

11. Alice Paul: Leader of Women’s Suffrage Movement

12. Video on Women’s Suffrage • Clips from Iron Jawed Angels • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvqnjwKW7gA • “Night of Terror” (3 min) • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeOHPfsCtFo

13. Women’s Suffrage Parody • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYQhRCs9IHM • 5 min

14. African American Suffrage • 15th Amendment (1870)- Gave African Americans the right to vote • Also first time national government had set rules for voting, a power only the states had previously exercised

15. African American Suffrage Video • http://www.mrctv.org/node/76811

16. Grandfather Clause • Provided that only voters whose grandfather had voted before 1867 were eligible to vote without paying a poll tax or passing a literacy test. • Supreme court declared it unconstitutional in 1915

17. Literacy Test • Many states required you to pass a literacy test to vote • White men only needed to sign their name, African Americans had to interpret complicated parts of literature

18. Literacy Tests • https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bw5IsiRuxKrEM1hTRnFFV0xDRE0/edit?pli=1 • http://kpearson.project.tcnj.edu/interactive/imm_files/test.html

19. Poll Taxes • Amount of money that had to be paid before a person could vote • Had to be paid in advance, and paid for previous unpaid years, and had to keep track of receipt showing you paid • Eventually outlawed by 24th Amendment in 1964

20. Video on African American Suffrage • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9D20exT32bQ&feature=relmfu

21. Voting Rights Acts • Passed in 1965, one of most effective suffrage laws ever passed • Federal government could register voters if it seemed they were being discriminated against • Provided poll watchers, literacy tests abolished, ballots were to be printed in different languages • African Americans could now play a more important role in Southern political life

22. Voting Rights Act Video • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQ2j8zSxPgU

23. 26th Amendment • Vietnam War, if 18 years olds could be drafted and fight for our country, they should be able to vote • Passed in 1971 • Gave around 10 million more citizens the right to vote • GA and KY first two states to lower their voting age to 18

24. 26th Amendment Video • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=re0BQzwvDsU